Tanja Olano, a Southern California native, will serve as LA 2024’s Deputy General Counsel and joins LA 2024 from the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton. The Candidature Committee will benefit from her wealth of experience advising businesses in mergers and acquisitions, financing and real estate transactions throughout the United States and internationally. Olano has served as the lead associate on large corporate and real estate transactions throughout her career, and has also regularly provided pro bono advice to nonprofit organizations relating to entity formation, grants, real estate and operational matters. A member of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association and the National Hispanic Bar Association, Olano is a graduate of USC and the George Washington University School of Law.

LA 2024’s sustainability credentials will be enhanced by the addition of Anna Schmitz who joins the legal team as Staff Attorney from the non-profit sector, where she worked on environmental issues relating to California’s cap-and-trade program, the most sweeping environmental protection program of its kind in the United States. Prior to joining LA 2024, Schmitz also spent a year in Germany on a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship, working on international climate and energy technology policy at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and at Allianz Climate Solutions, GmbH. Schmitz will manage the committee’s compliance issues with Olano. She completed her undergraduate studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and received her law degree at the University of Virginia, School of Law.

Olano and Schmitz join Brian Nelson, LA 2024’s General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Nelson joins LA 2024 from the California Department of Justice where he served as General Counsel and, prior to that, Special Assistant to Attorney General Kamala Harris. Nelson brings a wealth of experience in both public service and private practice, having also worked as US Department of Justice National Security Division’s Deputy Chief of Staff and as an appellate associate at the law firm of Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C. Nelson received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

LA 2024 CEO Gene Sykes said: “LA 2024 is determined to hire best in class executives in our quest to host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the US for the first time in 28 years. Brian, Tanja and Anna are ideal attorneys to lead LA 2024 as we navigate the wide and varied range of legal and compliance matters that any Candidate City wishing to host the Games has to face. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have their brilliant legal minds at our service as we build a transparent and sustainable bid that is compliant with the high standards of the Olympic Charter and Olympic Agenda 2020.

“The team’s experience at the intersection of the private and public sectors is a perfect match for our Candidature Committee’s overall approach. Brian, Tanja and Anna’s dedication to the quintessentially Californian values of openness, achievement and diversity will be an invaluable addition to our team, and I look forward to working with them.”